VII. A MOUNTED SKELETON OF PLATIGONUS LEPTO- 

 RHINUSi IN THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM. 



By O. a. Peterson. 



(Plate XXIX.) 



In 1894 while making an excavation for material for a brickyard 

 at the town of Goodland in the extreme western part of the state of 

 Kansas, there were discovered in the Pleistocene formation a number 

 of fossil bones. These were sent to Professor S. \V. Williston then 

 connected with the University of Kansas. Realizing the importance 

 of this discovery, Professor Williston immediately went to Goodland 

 and secured the remainder of the material. In all nine animals were 

 represented. Upon this Professor Williston based his description of 

 Platig07uis leptorhinus. From this material an articulated skeleton 

 was prepared and is exhibited in the Lawrence museum. A second 

 skeleton was assembled from this collection and forwarded in exchange 

 to the American Museum of Natural History, New York City. A 

 third skeleton from this same material was recently obtained by the 

 Carnegie Museum through exchange with the Museum of the Kansas 

 University. These three articulated skeletons represent the type- 

 material upon which Professor Williston established his species and 

 made his studies. 



The skull (No. 2806, C. M. Cat. Foss. Vert.) with the skeleton in 

 the Carnegie Museum is one of the immature skulls which Professor 

 Williston used in his description comparing it with Professor Le'dy's 

 Euchccrus macropsr In the Journal of Geology (Vol. X. p. 777-782) 

 for November and December of 1903, Dr. George Wagner calls 

 attention to some variation in the anatomica" features of the head 

 o" Platigonus and also suggests that Leidy's figure of Eiichccriis 

 macrops may in part be faulty. Wagner concludes that the species 

 leptorhinus Williston is a synonym of P. comprcssiis Le Conte.' 

 Even Professor Leidy himself in his description of the skulls of Plati- 

 gonus from near Rochester, New York, seems to have come to the con- 



^ Kansas Univ. Quar., Vol. Ill, 1894, p. 23-39. 



2 Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc, Vol. X, 1852, p. 323-342, pis. 35-38. 



'Le Conte, Y. L., Am. Journ. Sci. (2), V, 1848, pp. 102-6. 



114 



